Book Reviews, Short Stories, Cartoons, Poetry and Non sense.

The need for fiction

Most children who grew up in small town India had comic books and novels snatched away from their hands. Fiction was forced to exit and academics were force-fed. Why do you need to read stories was every parent’s question. So why do you need stories? Why do you need art as a whole? Science brings food to your table. Commerce keeps the world go round. Humanities help us dissect the world and its administration. Why do you need literature and art?

Well, see it like this – our life is not lived in the moments of silence spent staring at the computer screen. Life is not about sitting in a car and going from one place to another. It is just not called living. Sure, the human body is functioning but it isn’t going to remember those moments. What makes moments worth living? Love. Happiness. Satisfaction. Imagine your loved one. Would you not leave your high paying job if their happiness required you to?

This is not to say that your job is unimportant or that science and commerce in general is less important. Sure, we all need the solid things to get to our goals. But what are those goals? In a developed economy, art flourishes because once money is abundant, you need to spend it. And nothing else deserves your money than the most beautifully designed clothes, the most well painted scenery and the most well written book. The stories speak to the human soul and we are all, by studying math and science, trying to get to those stories.